Life Continues
by noam.gu.21
Summary: When Julie visits Matt in Chicago she doesn't allow him to send her away. Read as together they make their life together in Chicago with a surprise or two along the way. Appearances by many other characters.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I just started watching Friday Night Lights a few weeks ago and binged it till the end. I have to say I love Matt and Julie together and was disappointed by parts of their story and that we didn't get to see their life together in Chicago at all. This is going to be mostly Matt/Julie stuff with some Eric/Tami and appearances by other major characters.**

 **This story starts in the middle of 509 with Julie's walk following Matt's 'safety net' statement and diverges from canon there.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Friday Night Lights**

Chapter 1:

Safety net? He didn't want to be her _safety net_? Julie Taylor thought as she wondered down the street outside Matt Saracen's apartment in Chicago. How could he think that that's what this was? That it was merely about what had been going on in her life in the last few months that was the reason why she was here, with him.

Sure she'd been making mistakes but that wasn't the reason why she'd come to Chicago; she hadn't come merely to escape her issues at college and with her parents. She'd come to see Matt because her life was always better with him in it but that didn't make him her safety net.

Julie shook her head violently, suddenly angry that that was the assumption he had jumped to; that after all he'd been through; after all she'd been through; after all they'd been through together that was all he'd thought of her visit.

She felt her phone buzzing in her pocket but knew it would only be one of her parents, yet again wondering why she hadn't been in touch since supposedly leaving to head back to school. She made her way back up to the apartment, opening the door fiercely once she'd made it up the stairs.

Matt was still sitting at the table where she'd left him, his head was in his hands but quickly he lifted up and looked at her. He opened his mouth; obviously about to say something when Julie shook her head and his mouth snapped shut.

"Let's get one thing clear Matt; I didn't drive all the way here because you're some sort of safety net. I don't need to retreat to see you to hide out from the things going wrong in my life."

Matt shook his head slightly before responding. "Then why did ya come up here?"

Julie smiled. "Because I love you; my life is better when you're in it. That doesn't make you my safety net; it makes you someone I want to be with."

Matt finally returned her smile with his crooked one that always brightened her day. "I love you too." He told her as he stood from the table. "So what happens now then?"

Julie shrugged. "I figure I'll stay a bit longer; we can figure it out later." Matt nodded and walked over to her, bending down and kissing her.

 **** Life Continues ****

Meanwhile in Dillon, Texas Tami Taylor was fiddling with her phone. She and her husband, Eric Taylor, had each tried calling their daughter at least a dozen times since she had left to go back to school a week ago. Each time one of them called their call was sent straight to voicemail. Julie had been having a tough time of it and sure they were angry with her, disappointed in her, but right now Tami just wanted to know that her eldest daughter was alive and well.

She looked up as Eric entered the room, and set her phone down on the table. "Still no answer?" Eric asked as he sat down across from her.

"No, nothing." Tami said as a few stray tears left her eyes. "I'm just so worried."

"Ya, I know. But we have to believe she'll answer eventually. Until then we just gotta keep trying." Eric said. He wanted to know his eldest daughter was safe and okay. He wanted to know that she was back at school and staying away from that stupid TA. Unfortunately he needed to be strong for Tami.

"What if, what if she got into another accident? Or something else horrible happened?"

Eric grabbed his wife's hand into both of his and squeezed it. "Darlin' she's fine. We would have been contacted if something like that had happened. I'm worried too but we just gotta have faith that everything is okay for her." He now moved closer and wrapped her in his arms. "When she's ready she'll call, and we'll be here for her when she does."

Tami nodded against his shoulder, sniffling slightly.

"It's gonna be ok. I promise." Eric said as he continued to hold his wife while they shared in their worry for their daughter.

 **** Life continues ****

It had been 5 days since their sort of fight and the decision that Julie was going to stay longer when she shook Matt awake at 2 am. "I think I want to stay here, with you." She told him.

"Ya, we established that already." Matt said as he wiped his eyes and sat up slightly, to see his girlfriend wide awake next to him, her blond hair splayed out across her pillow as she lay wide-eyed.

"I know, but I mean longer."

"Okay," Matt still sounded unsure as he took a sip of water from the glass beside the bed. "How much longer are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking about seeing about transferring to Northwestern in the new term after Christmas."

This revelation from Julie caused Matt to sit up suddenly. The last of his sleep haze leaving him. "So would you just stay here until then? What about the end of this term?"

Julie shrugged. "I figured I could just take the time to adjust, get in touch with the school and see what we could do about just forgoing the end of this term and starting over in January here." She turned to look at Matt; her eyes were wide and hopeful. "What do you think?"

A few days ago Matt would have disagreed with her plan; but since their discussion a few days prior, they'd talked more openly about themselves and what they hoped for in the future and had agree that the most important thing was to stop pushing each other away and to accept that they belonged together.

So now Matt just smiled and nodded. "Sounds like a plan." He said as he rolled on top of her and captured her mouth, spreading her thighs as he did so.

The next morning, after Matt had left for work at the art gallery he worked at Julie spent more than 2 hours on the phone talking to school officials before it was all squared away. She would be starting her first year over again at Northwestern come January and couldn't be more happy.

As her phone beeped she saw it was her mother yet again, she still hadn't spoken to her parents in the week and a half since she left Dillon and she knew she needed to tell them but right now she was feeling queasy and so once more hit the ignore button.

A few minutes later she felt her stomach lurch and so ran to the bathroom, making it just in time. After finishing in the bathroom Julie pulled out her phone, ignored a call from her Dad this time and opened up the calendar function to check how many days she had before she'd have to deal with telling her parents she wasn't coming home for Christmas when she saw the pink coded line for 6 days ago and she realized what it might mean.

 ****Life Continues****

Tami watched as her husband put the phone down, evidently having been ignored, just as had happened to her several minutes previously.

"Okay that's it. We at least need to know she made it back to school safely." Tami dialled the number for the college and after a minute of ringing the call was answered.

"Hi, student residences department." A chipper voice sounded from the hall.

Tami sighed in relief, at least here her call would be acknowledged. "Hi, this is Tami Taylor. My daughter Julie Taylor hasn't been answering her phone and I just wanted to make sure she got back to school okay from our place a few weeks ago."

Eric, having realized what his wife was doing, moved closer and grasped her hand.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Taylor but Julie Taylor just called a little while ago to transfer to another school." There was silence for a brief moment except for the sound of keys as the person on the other end of the phone was checking something. "Yup, says here she's transferring to start at Northwestern in January."

Tami almost dropped the phone at the news that her daughter wasn't even attending school at the moment and hadn't bothered to tell them. Where had she gone if not back to school? At hearing the college she would be starting at everything clicked into place.

She turned to look at her husband and saw he'd reached the same conclusion because only one thing would take their daughter to Chicago. Matt Saracen.

 **AN: I'm planning on continuing this definitely. Any idea what is making Julie sick? What are Coach and Tami gonna do now that they know where Julie really went? Answers to those questions and more next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Friday night lights**

Chapter 2:

"What is she thinking?" Eric exclaimed as he and Tami sat after hanging up the phone from being told that their eldest daughter had transferred schools. "Leaving here and going to see him. Without telling us she just ups and what? Moves in with her high school boyfriend?" He turned to look at his wife. "Did you know she was talking to Matt Saracen again?"

Tami just shook her head, unable to accept what was going on. "I don't know that she was; she might have just driven up there on a whim."

"Well it doesn't sound like a whim anymore!" Eric exclaimed, "Julie's planning on staying there. What are we gonna do about your daughter?"

He always did this, whenever one of the girls (usually Julie) did something wrong it turned from _our_ daughter to _your_ daughter. "I'm not sure what we're gonna do about our daughter. Do you have any ideas?"

Eric nodded and pulled out his phone.

"What makes you think she's gonna answer this time?" Tami asked, a slight mocking quality entering her voice. Julie had been ignoring their calls for two weeks, it wasn't like she was suddenly going to take their call this time.

"I'm not calling her." Eric said as he found the correct contact in his phone. Tami sighed as she realized who he was attempting to reach and waited until the phone clicked into voicemail.

"Boy, tell my daughter to give me or her mother a call. We know she's there with you." Eric clicked the phone off and turned to his wife, a self satisfied smile on his face.

"You really think that's gonna work?" Tami smirked at him. "He's gonna listen to the message and either delete it or tell Julie and it's not like she doesn't know we're trying to get in touch with her."

"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Eric quipped back.

"I'm fly up there and have a chat with our daughter. You gonna come?" Tami said as she moved to the computer to book tickets.

 **** Life Continues****

Julie felt completely nervous as she moved through the drug store down the street from their apartment. _Their apartment_ , it still felt weird to think of it that way, as something that was becoming as much hers as his. It was weird and crazy to think of it that way but also felt right. She knew that she was where she belonged and if her suspicions were confirmed then it was even more important that she'd made the decision to stay here but regardless of what happened when she'd taken this test it was the right decision for both her and Matt that she stay.

Finally she'd picked up a few different tests (just to be sure) and purchased them as well as a big bottle of water so she'd be able to take them and know for sure. The sun was already setting as she walked back to the apartment, drinking the water as she did so. She looked around her and thought about how quickly this place had felt comfortable and like home. Julie knew that in large part that was due to Matt being here, his presence had always made things seem like home but it was also just the feeling of the city.

As she entered the apartment and moved towards the washroom, she felt her phone buzz. Expecting it to be her parents as neither of them had tried her for more than 6 hours, she pulled it out of her pocket. It was Matt not her parents. A text message telling her he'd be home in a half hour.

Julie knew she should wait for Matt to get home to take the test but she really needed to use the washroom and didn't want to waste the opportunity so grabbing her bag from the store she moved swiftly through the apartment.

Finally 6 minutes later she was surrounded by 4 different pregnancy tests all showing in their own way a positive result. She felt overwhelmed; they weren't prepared for this. They'd just gotten back together and she was about to restart college and oh god what would her parents say.

She was seriously freaking out and needed to distract herself. Figuring she could get dinner started so she at least had something to do she moved into the kitchen area and began to cook, her mind still focused on what they were going to do now.

Matt entered the apartment a bit later to his girlfriend sitting at the table with her head in her hands and tears in her eyes. At hearing him enter the room she looked up and smiled waterly up at him. He rushed to her side, "Julie, what's wrong. Did you finally answer your parents? Is that how they know you're here?"

Julie was totally caught off guard by this revelation and frowned. "What do you mean they know I'm here? How?"

Matt frowned, when he'd gotten Coach's message he assumed that Julie had finally sent her parents a message but apparently she was just as surprised as he'd been. "I don't know." He responded, "Coach called me this morning; I didn't answer but he left a message saying he knew you were here and that I should tell you to call them."

Julie frowned for a minute again before her expression eased and she sighed in realization of what must have happened. "They must have called the school after I was done this morning. I called and got a transfer to Northwestern approved."

Matt grinned at that news. "You did? That's great!" He said enthused; he still couldn't believe his luck that Julie actually wanted to stay with him in the long term. "That's good news right?"

Julie nodded in a subdued way; hoping he'd be as excited for her other piece of news as well. "Ya, its great news." She swallowed drily and for a moment couldn't make her mouth form the words but after a few minutes of struggling she was able too. "Matt, I'm pregnant."

Matt stood there for a moment, his brain struggling to comprehend what his girlfriend had told him. "Y-you're p-pre-pregnant." He stuttered causing Julie to smile. His slight stuttering when nervous was something she'd always found adorable and she was glad he hadn't lost that. "Well, that's great. We're gonna have a baby!" He exclaimed and hugged her to him tightly.

Julie nodded and stayed nestled in his embrace for a moment before the oven beeped, marking that the food she'd put on was ready. She moved to get up and get it out but Matt told her to stay put and that he'd get it. She smiled and waited while he served them the veggie casserole she'd made.

Once they were both seated she brought up the subject that they needed to address. "What are we gonna do Matt?"

"I don't know but we'll figure it out. I'm just so excited. You're here with me for good and you're pregnant. We're gonna be a family." Matt said and in that moment as he took her hand Julie knew that everything would work out. Then she heard a voice from the doorway that she didn't realize was still open from when Matt had entered and left it open after seeing her tears.

"You're what?" Looking up Julie saw her parents in the doorway.

 **** Life Continues ****

It was only a few hours after they'd found out there daughter was in Chicago that Eric and Tami found themselves walking up the stairwell towards the apartment that was the address Matt had given them as his current whereabouts. They had set off for the airport both calling the school and claiming urgent personal matters to get out of work before leaving Gracie with some friends and now here they were.

Tami pulled her husband to a stop as she saw the open door ahead of them and could just make our noises of dishes from the open doorway. "What are they doing leaving the door open?" Eric asked as they moved closer.

Finally the apartment came into view and they could see their daughter sitting eating with Matt Saracen as though it were perfectly normal, although given that she'd been here for more than 2 weeks it must be.

"What are we gonna do Matt?" They heard their daughter ask and for a moment there was silence.

Finally they saw Matt grasp Julie's hand and sigh. "I don't know but we'll figure it out." Tami frowned, aware that she and Eric were obviously missing something. "I'm just so excited. You're here with me for good and you're pregnant. We're gonna be a family."

Tami felt shocked. She heard someone ask what and realized it was her. She turned and looked at Eric and saw he was shocked and confused as well. Turning back to the young couple in the apartment she saw them both looking towards her with shock on their faces. They certainly had a lot to talk about.


End file.
